Sewing Kit

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My sister asked me quite a while ago whether I would make her a sewing kit similar to the one I had made Rebecca. The biggest change she wanted was a space for a crochet hook or two. Well, I changed quite a few things because Rebecca’s sewing kit was made specifically for a student who needs to be able to fix hems, sew on buttons etc. My sister’s was made with a crocheter in mind. I’m not sure if I got it right but at least it looks cute!

Kristine's Sewing KitI added a handle because I thought it would be easier to move from place to place, especially while holding a project. Furthermore, I turned the pockets around so that I didn’t need to put a flap over the crochet hooks to keep them from falling out.

Kristine's Sewing KitThere’s a big pocket for a tape measure and some thread (or a chocolate bar?), a linen square for needles and a small detachable pincushion on one side. On the other side there’s room for some scissors and four crochet hooks.

Detachable PincushionThe little pincushion is my favourite part, I think.

Crochet Hooks and ScissorsBecause the scissors kept sliding out I added a little tab that closes with a popper. There’s nothing worse than losing your scissors.

The sewing kit is on its way to Switzerland right now. I really hope my sister likes it and that it comes in handy whenever she’s working on a project.

I’m linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts’ Finish it up Friday and ticking another item of my FAL list.

 

 

 

 

Categories: Finish-A-Long, Home Projects13 Comments

Treasure Thursday

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Today I’d like to show you something sewing related again: a needle case.

Needle Case

As far as I remember this one came from one of my mother’s friends. It’s only about 2″ long and only fits fairly short needles. I know nothing about it but assume that it’s fairly old. The needle case lives in my hand sewing box making sure I always have sharp needles at hand.

Needle Case

Categories: Treasure Thursday2 Comments

Le Challenge

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I know I shouldn’t but this sounds like fun so I’m going to go for it anyway.

Le Challenge

 

Le Challenge is set up by Lucy of Charm About You and Nat of Made In Home. On the fifteenth of every month an inspirational challenge is set and you have one month to hand in your ‘homework’. The best thing is that any craft will do, no restrictions, just let your creative juices flow.

If you want to join or get more info on Le Challenge check out their blog. See you there?!

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Mother’s Day

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Wishing everyone who’s celebrating it this Sunday a very

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

Mother's Day CardThis is the card I received from Little Miss Bossy-Boots. Love it! The teachers did a great job helping the children. I think it’s beautiful and am going to get it framed.

 

Categories: Musings3 Comments

Shining Bright

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I’ve finished my Pantone 2013: Emerald Quilt Challenge mini quilt and I’m very happy with it.

Réalt Glas Finished

As it’s name Réalt Glas means Green Star in Gaelic, I decided to quilt some wandering clover on the grey Essex linen. It’s not my first time free motion quilting but it’s still rather wobbly and I realise that I have to practice a lot more. I used the same grey Aurifil 50wt  (2605) that I used for piecing.

Réalt Glas Finished

Except for the centre, the star (stars?) itself isn’t quilted. I did stitch in the ditch around the grey pieces but left the green pieces alone. I could tell you it was because I wanted them to stand out but in reality it’s because the inner star was too pouffy and I was worried that I would have lots of little pleats if I quilted it.

Réalt Glas Finished

The pattern tweaking is still going on for this but I should be finished by this weekend. All I need then is a little help from Master to turn it into a PDF file.

 

Categories: English Paper Piecing16 Comments

Treasure Thursday

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I wasn’t sure what to show you today but in the end I decided to show you a picture that is very special to me.

This picture is in fact a copy of a watercolour that hangs in one of our local restaurants. I first saw it when my Bridge group held its Christmas party there and fell in love with it. In fact I loved it so much I took a picture of it thinking I could maybe put that in a frame. The picture, I’m sorry to say, did not turn out well as you could see the reflection of a window in the glass.

Hanna's Pic

Five months later we moved into our house. A couple of months later I had the German Lunch Ladies over (a group of wonderful German and Austrian ladies who meet once a month to speak German and enjoy a lovely lunch) as it was my turn to cook for them. To my surprise I was handed this big present and a card which had been signed by the German Lunch Ladies and the members of the Bridge Club. Gesine, who like me is a member of both groups, had gone back to the restaurant, taken a picture of the watercolour and asked Hanna, one of the German ladies who’s an artist, to copy it. Hanna did a fabulous job, making it her own rather than simply a copy. Gesine then collected money from everyone to get it framed.

Hanna's Pic

The picture hangs in our living room and every time I look at it I’m reminded of these wonderful friends I’ve made while here in England. I know I’m going to miss them all when we move back to Switzerland but I will aways have a reminder of their friendship, talent and generosity.

Categories: Treasure Thursday1 Comment

Tweaking

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I’ve appliquéd my Pantone Emerald challenge star onto the the grey Essex linen background as I know that I have to finish it soon if I want to actually enter it.  It’s been slow going as I’ve been watching Downton Abbey (Season 2) at the same time.

Réalt Glas

I probably would have finished quilting by now if I hadn’t decided to tweak the pattern at the same time, snatching a few minutes here and there. I had to get the seam ripper and scissors out a few times as I had problems with a couple of the pieces not fitting properly. If you look at the small green star and the grey elongated hexagons you can see they are quite pouffy as I literally had to shoehorn the grey pieces in.

Réalt Glas

The fabrics I picked for the tweaked version remind me of spring flowers. Kaffe Fasset, Denyse Schmidt, Robert Kaufman dots and Kona Solids in happy reunion. I don’t know about you but I’m definitely ready for some sunshine and warmth. It’s not quite finished but I’m hoping to get the last apricot pieces sewn on this evening.

Spring VersionThe apricot colour isn’t something I would normally have picked but I really liked how it coordinated with one of the colours in the Kaffe Fasset print.

EPP Star SistersLying next to each other you can really see how fabric choice influences the perception of the stars. The hexagon shape which is so prevalent in the Spring Version sort of disappears in Réalt Glas. I love both of them. One last trial version to go before I put the templates up on the blog.

 

 

Categories: English Paper Piecing4 Comments

Treasure Thursday

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Round and round the garden like a teddy bear….

This weeks treasures are a few handmade teddy bears, all made by my lovely friend Dorte. The first two teddies were our wedding gift form Dorte and her husband Leigh. They were modelled on us and are called Freya and Padraig.

Wedding BearsAren’t they just the cutest little couple?

Freya and Padraig

The next teddy is Bernard and I bought him for Little Miss Bossy Boots for her first birthday. She loves him but doesn’t play with him as much as I thought she would and I think it’s because he’s a boy and doesn’t wear pretty dresses. I might have to give him a quick sex change at some stage and turn him into Bernadette.

Bernard

I also bought this little cutie, Herr Nisse. For a while he lived in our yucca but now he looks after my stash. It’s a difficult job but he does really well. Whenever I forget to fold my fabric again he stares at me with this really disapproving look. He’s perfected ‘the look’ and it never takes me long to fold my fabric properly and put it away.

Herr Nisse

Sadly Dorte got a little bit fed up with making teddies and is therefore taking a break from creating these wonderful treasures. I was hoping to add to the family but will just have to wait until Dorte is ready to make some more before choosing another furry friend to come and live with us.

Categories: Treasure Thursday1 Comment

A Green Star

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Every year Pantone chooses a colour of the year and this year they’ve chosen Emerald.   Ali of a²(w) has organised an Emerald Quilt Challenge over on flickr and after seeing many lovely green works of art I decided to enter as well.

Off to the drawing board I went (literally) and designed an EPP star.

EPP StarIt sparked quite a bit of interest on Instagram which I was rather surprised about. When I was asked to share the templates I decided that I will put the pattern on the blog as a free download. I’m just tweaking it at the moment to make sure every piece fits together nicely. I had a bit of a problem with the grey oblong hexagons (I’m sure they have a proper name) which are number five in the drawing. Hence the waviness in the last picture. I hope that it’ll disappear once it’s quilted.

Anyway, all greens can be used in the Pantone challenge although the focus should be on emerald green if possible. Furthermore, neutrals and one more colour can be added.

GreensI mostly used the greens I got in the Sew Solids Crew Stash Club and added just one polka dot print in the mix to lighten it up a bit.

ConfuciusConfucius to add a bit of wisdom.

Réalt GlasAnd a lot of grey to add some class. I like the way it has turned out. All that is left for me to do is appliqué it to the background, quilt it, bind it and enter it into the flickr pool. Oh, and pray that people like it…

 

 

 

 

Categories: English Paper Piecing3 Comments